G.R. Brewing Company returns downtown

GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) -- The Grand Rapids Brewing Company is open for business -- again -- in downtown Grand Rapids.

Operators marked the opening of the brewery at 3 p.m. Wednesday with a ceremonial keg tapping.

Mark and Michelle Sellers, owners of three other downtown Grand Rapids bars and restaurants,are reopening the brewery one year after obtaining the assets from its former operators on 28th Street Southeast.

Grand Rapids Brewing Co. got its start in 1893, when six smaller beer makers consolidated under that name. Operations stopped with Prohibition in 1920. The business tried to continue by selling soft drinks, but never recovered -- even after Prohibition's repeal in 1933. The brewery at Michigan Street and Division Ave. was torn down in 1964.

Grand Rapids brewery industry got a jump-start in 1993 when Founders began. Grand Rapids Brewing Company was revived and set up shop on 28th Street, but the business folded last year.